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Scientifica's three-photon satellite event

Scientifica held a three-photon satellite event during the Society for Neuroscience 2018 conference. The event was extremely successful, and included talks from Dr. Christian Wilms, Scientifica’s R&D Manager, Dr. Yoann Zaouter from Amplitude Systemes and Dr.Jack Waters, the Allen Institute.

Dr. Christian Wilms introduced three-photon microscopy, explaining that it enables neuroscientists to image deeper layers of the brain without interfering with, damaging or removing parts of the brain. He presented data from our three-photon demonstration, which used Scientifica’s HyperScope multiphoton imaging system and MDU XL for three-photon imaging of the mouse olfactory bulb and mouse sternum.

Following this, Dr. Yoann Zaouter, Laser Product Line Manager at Amplitude Systemes, explained that they have worked with APE to develop a dedicated three-photon laser solution. Amplitude Systemes Satsuma fibre laser is used to pump an optical parametric amplifier (OPA) developed with APE. This ensures 50 femtosecond laser pulses are produced, enabling the high excitation photon density required for three-photon imaging.

Finally, keynote speaker, Dr. Jack Waters, Associate Investigator at the Allen Institute, presented his work on three-photon imaging. He explained that his lab uses three-photon imaging when they need to image deeper in densely labelled tissue or when they need to image through a scattering layer, such as the skull and dura. Compared to two-photon imaging, ‘flaring’ of out-of-focus fluorescence from the brain surface, which reduces image contrast when imaging very deeply (around 1mm), is vastly reduced. Image resolution is also much higher when three-photon imaging is used.